Apps

I love taking photos and my Instagram account shows it. The Layout app from Instagram helps me combine multiple photos into one collage. So if I have pictures from a party or a walk around the park, I can put several of them together into one frame. Layout makes it easy to customize, share, and save my creatively arranged photos.

Coffee is my co-pilot throughout the week. But if you asked me how much I drink on average, I'd draw a blank. Since my coffee habit was actually on auto-pilot, I chose RECaf - Caffeine Recorder as a a caffeine tracker for what, when, and how much caffeine I was consuming. This app is compatible with "Hey Siri" for logging entries and has customizable options so I can add specific drinks or food with their approximate caffeine content.

One of the iOS 12 features I've been eagerly awaiting is Apple's new Shortcuts app. This new app allows you to instruct Siri to accomplish a task or series of tasks with native and third-party apps, all triggered by a phrase of your own choosing. In addition to creating your own Shortcut, Apple's latest help app also lets you choose from a Gallery of pre-designed shortcuts. Let's get started learning how to find the Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad, and then use the Gallery to install a Shortcut we all need from time to time: finding directions home. Once you've installed the driving directions Shortcut, you can choose and configure as many other Gallery Shortcuts as you need. We'll go over how to create your own Shortcut in a future tip.

FaceTime, the Apple live video chat app, is a fun way to connect with friends and family when hearing their voice just isn't enough. Now FaceTime is getting even better with a new filter feature in iOS 12. There are lots of filters to choose from, so you'll always find something to fit your mood: a cartoon filter, a few black and white choices, and much more. Let's get started learning how to use FaceTime filters on iPhone or iPad. 

I absolutely love going on road trips, or travel of any kind, really. One of the most fun aspects of any trip for me is finding places to eat, as well as museums and shops that are off the beaten path, local favorites that become part of my mental "must visit" list for future adventures. One of the best tools I've found for trip research to destinations near and far is the Yelp app. Yelp is a free app that collects professional and business reviews from all over the world including restaurants, movers, home cleaning services, shopping, and even doctors and clinics! Yelp has collected over 135 million reviews so far, and the number keeps growing as more and more smartphone users discover this handy app. If you're the type of person that likes to plan ahead and get the most for your money and time, you'll want to learn more about Yelp, including how to set up your own free account and use it to read and write reviews.

Apple's new operating system, iOS 12, introduces a new, useful measurement app that also includes a level (the Compass app no longer has a level feature). Third-party developers have long offered a level app, a tape measure app, or both, so it's great that owners of the iPhone 8 and later can now enjoy this Apple app for free. I've written about how to use the augmented reality (AR) tape measure portion of the Measure app in a previous tip, so now it's time to go over how to use the level feature; let's get started!